United Arab Emirates: Dynamic compaction in record time

12 August 2011 - New contracts - United Arab Emirates

As part of the Abu Dhabi 2030 urban development plan, the emirate intends to build a town comprising 5,000 villas, 2,300 houses, 2,100 high-rise buildings, a hospital, a shopping centre and 14 schools between now and 2013. The soil at the selected site being of poor quality, Ménard, a subsidiary of Soletanche Freyssinet (VINCI Construction), was appointed to undertake soil improvement works on a surface area of some 5 million square metres (of the site’s 12 million square metres). Dynamic compaction (a technique involving dropping a weight of between 15 and 20 tonnes from a height of 15 to 20 metres), carried out by eleven cranes working round the clock, enabled the company to fulfil its biggest-ever contract in just 7 months (a month ahead of schedule).